CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE The Last Visitor
By the time Mira returned, she walked with a cane.
Not because she was frail.Because time had finally caught her.
The chamber doors opened with the same groan they always had, but the woman who entered was no longer the one who had once pressed trembling hands against the glass.
Her hair, once dark, had thinned into silver threads pulled into a loose knot at the back of her head. Lines mapped her face like the history of a war no one else remembered.
She paused after the third step.Catching her breath.Leylin watched.
He had watched her grow older in fragments , a strand of gray here, a stiffness in her shoulders there .. but seeing it all at once was… different.Gluttony stirred faintly.Not hunger.Recognition.
"You look the same," she said after a long silence.
Her voice was roughened by years, but steady.
"I suppose monsters don't age."
She moved closer to the cage, hand trembling as she reached out to touch the surface. The runes flared softly beneath her palm, casting pale light across her face.
For a moment, she simply stood there.Breathing.Remembering.
"I used to be afraid of you," she continued quietly. "Back then… I thought if you looked at me, I'd die."
A faint smile touched her lips.
"You never did."
Her eyes searched the distortion inside the prison, trying to find him ,trying, as she always had, to meet the gaze of someone she could barely see.
"I had a life, you know," she said after a while. "After they stopped letting me come here, I tried to forget."
A small laugh escaped her.
"It didn't work."
She leaned her forehead gently against the glass.
"I got married. He was kind. Didn't ask too many questions."
A pause.
"He died before I did."
Her fingers curled slightly against the surface.
"I had a son too. You saw him once. He grew up strong… stubborn."
Her voice softened.
"He would have liked you."
Leylin's eyes shifted .. barely.Enough to watch her more directly.He did not understand why he did.He did not understand why the ache in his chest felt sharper than any wound he had ever taken in battle.
Pride burned steadily.Gluttony listened.
"I came to say goodbye," she whispered.
Not dramatic.Not tearful.Just tired.
"I don't have much time left."
Silence settled between them, heavy and absolute.She drew in a shaky breath.
"You never asked my name."
A faint smile, fragile but genuine.
"I think… I liked that."
Her hand slid down the glass slowly, leaving a faint trail of warmth that faded almost immediately.
"My name is Mira."
She closed her eyes.
"As long as someone remembers it… I existed."
Leylin's fingers twitched.Not enough to break the chains.Not enough for anyone else to notice.But for the first time in centuries,he tried.
The chains hummed, draining the motion before it could become action.Mira stepped back.For a moment, she simply looked toward the place where she imagined his eyes would be.
"Don't stay alone forever," she said softly.
Then she turned.Her steps were slow.Measured.Final.
She did not look back.The chamber doors closed.The sound echoed through the abyss like the sealing of a tomb.
Leylin stared at the empty space she had left behind.For the first time since his imprisonment..Time passed slowly.Painfully.
Like something inside him had remembered what loss felt like and refused to let go.Pride burned.Gluttony was silent.Listening for footsteps that would never come again.Far above, life continued.
Seasons changed.Generations rose and fell.No one remembered the woman who had once visited a monster in chains.In the darkness below..Leylin closed his eyes.Not to sleep.Not to rest.
But to hold onto the fading echo of a name.Mira.And for the first time in centuries…the prison did not feel empty.